Rain in the Mire
by AedanRyche
Summary: Ria, an elf in the employ of the guild, traverses the Mire of Sorrow to hunt down the Witch of the Mire, Raine(Rain-ee). The story tells of the Witch fighting off infection as the Rouge Ria hunts her down under the employ of the Orc King Llarth.


Once upon a time, in a land not unlike a medieval India, a Witch made a strike unto the king of a vast empire. The ruler, King Llarth of the Orc, was wounded by his age-old foe Raine, an elf witch from the Mire of Sorrow. The witch escaped his loyal guards and fled to the swamp, melting into the shadows as the legend she had come to be. Two days on his back, ordered to rest by his healers and away from his throne, King Llarth sent to the nearby Mercenaries Guild, offering a royal sum to whoever brought him the head of the fabled and all too real witch.

Not a day had passed before Ria, an elf in the employ of the guild accepted the contract, striding to the counter and accepting the work confidently while her guild-mates would refuse and hide. She had left the guild hall the next day, having packed her provisions, poisons and traps in a rucksack that now lie between her shoulders, spattered with grime.

She shook the sweat from her brow, her dark brown and dappled green leggings, tunic and cloak, coated in muck and mud from the swamp. A dagger held in a vice grip, blade back and coated in a slightly pearlescent fluid as she stalked her prey, the Witch of the Mire, Raine. She slogged through the thigh deep water, if it could be called that, wrapping her arm around the trunk of a small tree and pulling herself into its mound of roots. She took a moment to gain her bearings, checking for any sign of habitation or predators before sliding back into the thick primordial ooze this area passed as liquid.

Raine limped across the floor of her home, a forked branch under her right arm as support from her injury. She shook her wet and matted ivory locks from her face, breathing heavily as she dunked a ladle into a bucket of clean water. She brought the deep spoon to her lips, drinking indulgently of the quenching and life sustaining liquid in attempt to dull the heat of her fever. She returned the ladle to its place, limping back to her bed, sitting with great care before lightly holding her right knee. The white bandage was long ago drenched in red to match her dress, the crossbow bolt having passed though the cap. She jerked her head up as the guttural croak of a bullfrog sounded in her window. She furrowed her brow, raising her hand and whispering an incantation, the frog convulsing on the sill before falling silent and still. Raine sighed, her neck popping as she absorbed the life force of the frog.

Ria held her boots by the soles, water dripping from the leather as the hard won fire dried them. Night had fallen on her quickly today, having spent the final hours gathering reasonably dry wood and tinder as she searched for a secluded and defensible site to make camp. Her mind was blank as she began to feel the fatigue, her bare body cold and water logged as her clothes dried by the fire. The night was cold, yes, but she knew if she stayed in the wet garments that she would die of hypothermia.

She opted for an hour of cold to an eternity of mortis. "There is no way this witch is real," she muttered. "The king is only sending his new hireling on a snipe hunt." She lifted a stick by her foot, waving the blackened and steaming frog on the end to cool it. "But at two thousand platinum, who wouldn't chase children's tales…" She bit into the frog flesh, wishing she had bought salt. Looking up, one would see stars on a countless number, bright and twinkling in a sea of black velvet. The two large moons floated lazily in the sea of light and dark, craters staring at the world like eyes. Ria stared back at the unblinking surface, dropping the boots near the fire and laying on her bedroll. The night was not over, and she needed her rest.

Raine's sleep was fitful, tossing and frequented by nightmares. She would wake each hour, feeling weaker each time as she made the now arduous journey to drink. She could smell the stench of rot in the air, unsure if it was the wound or the swamp. She sat on her bed, gingerly removing the bandage from her knee. She rolled the soiled linen as she uncoiled it, cringing as she beheld the ragged and discolored flesh. "No…" she muttered, applying a poultice to the hole before drinking a potion of mercury and healing herbs. She repeated the word as she wrapped her wound in yet another bandage, covering the bandage in her scarlet leggings before covering herself with a fur. She mumbled the word to herself as she drifted into yet another nightmare.

Ria woke with the lightening of the sky, her eyes opening before the last of the stars faded from sight. She lay in her furs, letting her body catch up to her mind as it would. Today was the last day she could continue her chase, her provisions only allowing her three days in the swamp in total, and she did not fancy the thought of having to eat spiders and swamp crabs until she could touch solid ground again. After a few minutes she left her bed, dressing quickly in her now dry clothes before rolling her mat and tying it to her pack. She looked at the swamp around her, the plant covered water, detesting the idea of shaming her flawless record with one missed bounty due to a resource limit. She steeled her expression, falling into a cross-legged sit and closing her eyes, calling to the wild for aid. She sat as she was, waiting hours before the singing of a bird caught her ear. She opened her eyes, holding out her hand and waiting for the messenger to appear. Within moments, a swallow landed on her fingertips, chirping loudly before flying towards a tree. Ria smirked, rising from her seat and grasping a vine that wrapped around the tree. If it was a bird that would guide her, then she wanted to keep the pace.

Raine woke from her state of unrest, rolling over from the wall and vomiting on the ground beside her bed. She waited for her stomach to finish convulsing, calming enough to allow her to sit up. She moved to check her bandage, staying her hand as she beheld blackened veins and greened skin above her mid thigh. Her face saddened as she beheld her fate, knowing the un avoidable fact that her life would end at the hands of gangrene and foul blood. A tear fell from her eye as she accepted her death, the witch grasping her black stave and pulling herself to her feet. She took her time, precious as it was, slowly walking to the door of her dug in hut. She wanted to see the sun one last time, to feel the winds kiss and the hear natures sounds before she passed.

Ria jumped the length from tree to tree, balancing on the thick branch of a Cyprus as she searched for her feathered guide. She found the swallow flittering over a small isle in the mire, an open door leading down into a hole underneath a tree in the center. Ria steeled her mind, forcing herself to become cold as she prepared to make the kill. She drew her daggers, the vials of lethal, neurotoxic venom leaching the shimmering fluid over the steel. She rose from her balanced crouch, running along the branch and leaping from its severed tip, sailing over the water as she fell. She braced herself, landing on the isle and rolling over the dirt. She stood crouched on the balls of her feet, viewing the area for her target before a butterfly flittered across her view. She blinked as she creature flew not inches from her face, following the bright insect's path until she found where it was headed.

Ten feet to her right lay the body of Raine, the Witch of the Mire, smiling and lifeless in a ray of sunshine. Ria sighed, sheathing her blades at her waist before moving towards the body. "What a shame," she said, moving a lock of hair from Raine's face, framing her alabaster skin in white. "Such a pretty face…" Ria lifted Raine's corpse on the her shoulders in a fireman's carry, following the rising sun into the water to the east, back to town, to her bed, and to her payment.

**So this is what I do when I'm asked properly to make a story. When people give me subject, basic plot, ending outcome and character profiles.**

**This was done for my sister so she would get a good grade. It received a 98. **

**All Characters, locations and circumstances are based off Blizzard's World of Warcraft, but all names and Characters are property of and used with permission from Scarlet Rain, sister of AedanRyche.**


End file.
